Trade Them All

Scripture References: Deuteronomy 4:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:14; Philippians 3:7-11

Lee Atwater wanted to reach two goals before he was forty: manage a winning presidential campaign and head the Republican party. He accomplished both—the first by managing the 1988 Bush campaign, the second when the president-elect asked him to become chairman of the National Republican Committee. During a speech at a fund-raiser in 1990, Atwater’s goals changed. Suddenly unable to finish his speech due to uncontrollable shaking, he was taken to a hospital and was diagnosed with cancer—an egg-sized tumor was on his brain. Radiation killed it, but could do nothing for a second tumor.

Before has death on March 29, 1991, Atwater wrote about the 1980’s as the decade of acquiring wealth, power, and prestige. He had subscribed to it wholeheartedly. “But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty,” he wrote. “What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with my friends. . . .”

Our vaunted ability to face life with equilibrium vanishes when we are eye to eye with our mortality! That inescapable time bomb came with our conception and will inevitably explode our plans and goals. Tell us again; maybe we will listen this time—“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19). “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.